


Never an Absolution

by SpaceWaffleHouseTM



Series: One Shots from the Waffle House [22]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: A Big Damn Kiss, Alternate Universe - Afterlife, Alternate Universe - Titanic Fusion, Angst, F/M, Happily Ever After, Inspired by the end of Titanic, Kinda, Kissing, Major character death because they’re all dead but they’re together so it’s okay, No Pregnancy, Post TROS, Post canon, Reunions, Rey dies of old age but it’s fine SHES with Ben, Titanic References, Tros fix-it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:26:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22294774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceWaffleHouseTM/pseuds/SpaceWaffleHouseTM
Summary: Rey has lived a good life. In spite of losing her soulmate young, she managed to explore the galaxy and live it to the fullest, but now her time is at an end. When she’s gone, that connection instantly snaps back, and a very familiar silhouette waits for her beneath the Falcon.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: One Shots from the Waffle House [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1298357
Comments: 46
Kudos: 255
Collections: TROS Reylo Fix-it Fics





	Never an Absolution

**Author's Note:**

> I made a joke on twitter the other day about how TRoS ended with what was effectively Rose saying she was Rose Dawson and I thought that Titanic DIDNT end there so I wrote this where Rey is reunited with everyone again. Technically they’re all dead but this is happy, I promise.

Rey was good at waiting. For nearly fifteen years of her life, she had waited on a barren wasteland for people who were never coming back for her. For another year after that, she had waited for the man she’d later learn was her soulmate to come back to the light and join her. The minute she had him in her arms, though, was the minute she had lost him to the force. They had just come together, just shared their first kiss, and she’d started to think that this was what she had been waiting for all along—

It was, but  _ oh, _ was it fleeting. 

After that, her wait turned into decades. For a few months, she allowed herself to sort of wallow in self pity in his family’s old home, calling herself by their name in an effort to feel close to all the people she’d lost. If she was Rey Skywalker, maybe all the other Skywalkers would return. 

Maybe Ben would return. 

Eventually, though, she had to leave Tatooine. There was a pain that lingered about the old house she’d called home, and she couldn’t shake it off her shoulders. After a while training with her new lightsaber and meditating on everything, she left the barren planet for that green she’d come to love so much about the galaxy. 

Rey spent her years seeing all the places she’d wanted to see with him at her side, but they weren’t the same. Her soul wasn’t the same because half of it was literally dead, gone into the force. She could still touch it sometimes, could still see him outlined in blue and they would hold each other for a while, but it wasn’t the same. He still looked so young and she was starting to develop lines on her face and grays to her hair. 

His ghost watched her grow old, but every time he noticed a new change that made her sad, he would smile and call her beautiful. Still, in spite of all those conversations that they’d have, he always held back, promising he’d tell her when she joined him again, but not before her time. Before she could hear what he had to say, she had to live out her days and do all that exploring she’d wanted to do from the day she’d left Exegol. 

And so she lived for them both, carrying him with her in her heart as the years passed, as she turned from young to old, and she began to realize that her time was coming to an end. Relief filled her with the passing of her final days. She’d lived a good life, all things considered. She’d had friends, a built family, and she’d seen the bulk of the galaxy. That was a good life, wasn’t it? 

It would’ve been better with him, but as she climbed beneath the sheets of her bed for what she knew would be the last time, she was smiling. At last, after years of waiting, the first dyad born in countless years was coming together again. 

This time it wouldn’t be their undoing, it would be a beginning. 

She wasn’t sure what to expect from fading into the force. She was well into her nineties and even sleeping tended to ache those days, so when she felt nothing at all, she was shocked. Her eyes opened as she sat up abruptly, realizing that something had changed, but not knowing what. 

The hut she’d called her home on Ahch-To, her final resting place, was gone. In its place was a beautiful, expansive room, decorated in the finest furnishings one could possibly buy. Her clothes were gone, too, her comfortable but warn down garments replaced by a white gown boasting a whispy chiffon fabric for a skirt and a more fitted version of the same fabric at the bodice, wrapped around her chest in a form fitting version of what she’d worn the day she’d lost her soulmate. 

The gown drew attention to the fact that her body had changed as well—she looked no older than twenty five, though she suspected she was twenty, she knew that still healing scar on her arm well—and as she crawled off of the silken sheets she slept on, she knew she wouldn’t have to check a mirror to know her reflection was exactly how she remembered it. A shaky breath left her as she looked about the room, her hair falling over one of her shoulders as she turned her head this way and that trying to take it all in. 

Was this death? Had it all been a dream?

_ No,  _ a voice— _ her _ voice—ensured her in her head.  _ It was all real.  _

Every second of it, the pain, the heartbreak, the torment, it had all been real. One thing was for certain, though, it was over now. All that misery was in the past, was in life, and now, in the force, she knew what lay ahead was only peace. 

_ And Ben.  _

For the first time in so many years, she could sense him near. It had been seventy years since the last time they’d seen each other, but she could still remember what it was like to look at him and realize he’d come for her, to realize he wanted to be with her, and realize that her heart belonged to him and his to her. She could still recall in perfect detail every inch of his face, the softness of his hair, the tenderness in his gaze just before she’d kissed him, and the beautiful smile she’d borne witness to just after. 

She could still remember how it felt to have his lips on hers, how his arm wrapped around her waist, and how his fingers splayed out on her back as he held her close. 

Every single thing about him was a perfect memory preserved in a little pocket of her mind that she only let out in the darkest of moments of her life when she needed to see sunshine. She could never have forgotten him, but now she didn’t need to cling so tightly. 

_ Ben was here.  _

Taking a moment to find her sea legs, Rey began striding toward the first door she could find, throwing it open and rushing out into a hallway just as decadent as the room she’d woken up in. Once she was out, though, she paused. 

Lines of people surrounded the hallway, leading all the way up to a series of massive double doors that suddenly seemed familiar, even though she’d never seen them before.  _ Naboo _ , her voice whispered in her mind again.  _ You’re on Naboo, and these are your friends.  _

The voice was right. Everywhere she looked left and right she could see faces she recognized smiling at her. Kaydel was the first person she recognized, still wearing her little blonde buns, which bobbed slightly as she gave her a nod as if to say,  _ go on _ . 

More familiar faces began cropping up. Snap, Jannah, Zorii, Maz, and countless others she’d met on her long journey all lined the hallway, each giving her smiles and nods as she reached out and touched their hands, feeling a lump form in her throat from sheer joy as they began to follow her down the hallway, and she realized how starved she’d been of their love and kindness for all this time.

Most of them had also lived decades, but in spite of how unfair it was, Rey had outlived them all. 

Luke, Chewie, Rose, Finn, and Poe all stood toward the end, gone from her for at least a decade each, but now were beaming bright and young again as she brushed her fingertips with theirs, and she could feel a smile reaching her eyes for the first time since Exegol seventy something years ago. Force, she’d missed them, she missed them all, but she had reached the double doors at the end of the long hallway, and somehow hadn’t seen the one person whose presence she could sense near her most. 

Before she could dwell on why, those doors opened, and Rey found herself staring out into the shallow of a lake beyond the white, pristine sands of a beach. The lake was notable of course, for the ship that stood in the shallow waters. Another rare sight—the Millenium Falcon itself—was standing before her still looking like a piece of junk. Still she was delighted to see it, but more delighted to see the two figures standing right close by near the doors. 

Han and Leia were the first to greet her, the first to touch her hand, and the first people she actually stopped and lingered by. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but before she could, the latter of the two shook her head. “ _ Go,” _ she whispered, her voice just as soothing as Rey remembered. “He’s waiting.”

A tiny sob escaped her, but she didn’t allow herself to cry any tears. She could cry when he was in her arms again, and no sooner. 

Without hesitating another moment, Rey turned from the Organa-Solos, and made her way toward the Falcon, where a broad, dark silhouette she knew well was waiting for her, leaning against the on ramp to the Falcon as he watched, and the presence of the dyad’s other half grew so strong it was almost overwhelming. She couldn’t wait another minute, and so she took off running across the beach, only realizing she wasn’t wearing shoes as the warm grains of sand shifted beneath her feet with each step, and barely even taking notice of it then. She only took notice because she nearly tripped on the edges of her flowy, sheer skirt layers on her way to him, but even that wasn’t enough to distract her from enjoying this moment. 

As she got closer, she could see Ben’s dimples, the crinkles by his eyes, and the sun shining off of the pale expanse of his skin as he stepped toward her, and she could see that from the last time she saw him, nothing had changed at all. He was still wearing that sweater, only it was clean and there was no longer a lightsaber shaped hole in it, and he had on gray pants instead of black. The only difference was hair was slightly mussed from the breeze and he had no dirt or blood on his face. He was pure, authentic, Ben Solo, and at the end of her long run, she absolutely collided with him. 

The impact nearly sent them both tumbling to the sand, but unlike the last time he’d held her, his strength was fully intact, and firm, warm arms wrapped around her waist, spinning her around in the air before one of his hands reached up, and tangled his fingers in her hair as she pressed desperate kisses into his. “Ben,” she whispered, repeating his name over and over again as she listened to the sound of his breathing, as she felt him beneath her skin and against her body, and his other hand splayed out onto her back

_ I missed you, _ she thought, hoping he could hear her through the connection.  _ I love you.  _

He could, then she could hear his voice in her head as she finally learned what he wouldn’t tell her in all those times she’d seen his blue-lined silhouette.  _ I love you, too.  _

His voice called out her name, and it was just as deep and rich as she remembered. “Rey,” he breathed, repeating it over and over again as wet, joyous laughter shook his entire chest, and he set her down, pulling back to look her in the eyes. “Rey.”

“Ben,” she whispered, her whole body trembling as she took him in, as she felt her soul stitching itself back together with his, feeling whole after being broken for so long. It made her want to cry with joy, and so she did, allowing tears to form and spill out onto her cheeks. The hand he’d allowed to sweep up into her hair came down, and she felt his thumb wipe them gently away as she blinked more from his eyes. “It’s been a long time.”

“Rey Skywalker, huh?” he teased, that smile he was giving her now more reminiscent of the way he’d looked just before she kissed him. “I thought I’d given you a perfectly good surname… as my bondmate.”

Another wet laugh escaped her, and if crying was as gross in the afterlife as it was in reality, she was certain she looked a mess. “I wanted to honor your whole family, and I was—I was so lost,” she told him, her fingers twining themselves in his hair as she pulled him close, but not so close she couldn’t look into his eyes. It had been seventy years since she’d seen those eyes, she needed to look into them now, to watch the gold swim amongst the sea of dark brown—to watch them shine with life and love in a way she’d only ever seen them do for her. “But I… I lived.”

“I know you did.”

“I saw shades of green you wouldn’t believe exist.” She choked on her words as a sob tried to wrench itself from her throat, but she swallowed it back. Tears were allowed, tears were joyous, but not sobs. This was a happy occasion, and she’d cried enough in her years alone. “I met people, saw places, things… saved lives… it was a good life.”

“It sounds wonderful.”

“It would’ve been better with you in it.”

Ben’s hand slid back into her hair, then he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’m here now,” he whispered, then he took in a deep breath. “And you don’t have to wait anymore.”

A smile parted her lips, one she could feel reach her eyes as the sun began to sip just beneath the edge of the Falcon, painting them in hues of pink and orange as the breeze blew past them, her skirts catching in the wind as she brushed the hair from his eyes, and shook her head. “No, I don’t,” she agreed, then she placed her hand upon his cheek like she had the first time they’d kissed, and her smile grew wide. “There’s something I’ve been waiting to do for the better part of a century.”

A smirk not unlike one his father would’ve worn once upon a time blossomed on his face, then he wrapped his arm more tightly around her waist. “Come here.”

_ Force _ , how long had she been waiting to hear those words? It didn’t matter now, all she knew was that at last he was there, and she wasn’t alone. More than seventy years had led to this moment, and she wasn’t going to hesitate any longer. Breath hitching, she leaned forward, a little hesitant at first, but then confidence and longing took over, and she was kissing him. 

The whole world spun beneath her feet, but she and Ben were standing still. Within a tenth of a second, he was kissing her back, pulling her tight against him as his hand formed a fist in her hair, as his lips moved hungrily against hers, making her realize that he’d been waiting for this for just as long as she had. He’d been watching from afar while she lived her life, and she had caught glimpses of him, but never truly seen him until now. 

His lips were soft and warm like she remembered, and when he kissed uninhibited by injury, Ben Solo kissed her so deeply she saw stars. Every brush of their lips was tender and sweet, but it was also so desperate and wanting, her entire body felt like it was on fire—

_ Like touching a live wire on the wreck of a starship. _

He was magnetic, loving, and so gentle in his kisses in spite of their passion. Nothing was held back, both of them pouring every ounce of emotion they had into the kiss as they began catching up on what should’ve been decades worth of kisses in a matter of seconds. 

The wait was over, he was in her arms again, and she’d finally gotten to kiss him properly. As the kiss deepened, she felt herself being lifted from the ground again, and the man she loved was walking her back inside the ship and out of view of all the people watching their reunion, but into the great unknown that would be their forever. 


End file.
